As the mountain real estate market rebounds, a Dallas private equity firm is making bold moves, buying disheveled mountain ranchland and forging top-tier trophy sport ranches with investors who get to hunt, fish and play on the ranches.

Sporting Ranch Capital‘s first $30 million fund has acquired four large, watery properties in Utah, Idaho, New Mexico and just outside Pagosa Springs in the Weminuche Valley.

Each ranch fronts rolling rivers, almost ruined by years of cattle grazing. But the firm’s fund, with backing from investors such as energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens, spends millions renovating the land, restoring riparian habitat, building lakes and stocking several species of trout. The firm plans to buy two more ranches before starting a second, $50 million sporting ranch fund and marketing the pristine ranches to high-end buyers.

Jay Ellis, who founded the fund last spring, said his idea is creating “a new end-marketplace for recreational ranch buyers.” Plenty of wealthy buyers acquire and revitalize ranchland, but then the property often stays in the family for generations. This is a new concept for an investment fund, Ellis said.

The idea is to develop the ultimate property with acres of oat and barley luring both big game and waterfowl and miles of rehabilitated river teeming with trout. The upgrades also include fancy ranch entrances, removal of dilapidated structures and miles of new buck-and-rail fencing. The fund does not build any homes, leaving a “blank canvas” for buyers who want to create their own feel, Ellis said.

The ranches are within 40 minutes of an airfield, town and ski resorts. And all have lots of water. The more water, the more valuable the property, Ellis said.

The response from investors, who get exclusive access to the properties, “has been phenomenal,” said Ellis, who used to manage the equity sales desk for Morgan Stanley in Dallas.

“It’s an alternative to the financial market,” he said. “You are buying tangible, finite assets in limited supply that God doesn’t create anymore.”

Ellis said replacing a cash dividend with a “trout dividend” has thrilled investors.

“You can’t play with a stock certificate,” he said.

The firm’s purchases include a 140-acre property in Idaho’s Teton Valley near Driggs and a 204-acre property acquired from the LDS Church on the upper Provo River near Park City, Utah. The fund’s New Mexico property stretches across 516 acres along the Chama River. Diversification of ranchland across several states protects the fund from fluctuating markets, Ellis said

Earlier this year, the fund bought its first Colorado property in the Weminuche Valley a half hour’s drive from Pagosa Springs.

The 760-acre ranch has 2.6 miles of waterfront along Weminuche Creek and five lakes.

Skelton helps identify the potential of each property. His job is to find the “C” or “D” ranch — something that has been used agriculturally for decades. And its fishery potential must be able to reach “A-plus,” he said.

“These guys are about the world-class properties. There are a lot of ranches out there that won’t fit this fund’s strategy,” Skelton said. “It’s a real blessing to be part of this group. I’m thankful these guys are forward thinking enough to realize that stream restoration is not an artificial product. It’s a real, tangible and natural product that is sustainable in the long run.”

Jason Blevins covers tourism, mountain business, skiing and outdoor adventure sports for both the business and sports sections at The Denver Post, which he joined in 1997. He skis, pedals, paddles and occasionally boogies in the hills and is just as inspired by the lively entrepreneurial spirit that permeates Colorado's high country communities as he is by the views.

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